Educational interactive games

ABSTRACT

An educational interactive game of the invention includes a system for teaching financial skills to players, and in particular, children in the context of an interactive electronic game. Each player is initially provided a predetermined amount of periodic earned income, periodic expenses and a predetermined amount of cash on hand. These items are represented by corresponding indicia on an electronic display. An object of the game is for a player to generate passive income greater than the player&#39;s expenses by encountering game events that provide a player the opportunity to make financial choices to affect the desired outcome.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/001,160, filed on Nov. 30, 2004, by inventorsPhilip A. Rogan, David A. Gipp, and Douglas W. Herman, which is acontinuation of and claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/326,497, filed on Dec. 20, 2002, by inventors Philip A. Rogan, DavidA. Gipp, and Douglas W. Herman, which claims benefit of priority under35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from Application Ser. No. 60/420,083, filed on Oct.18, 2002, by inventors Philip A. Rogan, David A. Gipp, and Douglas W.Herman, the foregoing Applications hereby incorporated by reference intheir entirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND AUTHORIZATION

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to interactive games and methods forteaching. More particularly, but not exclusively, the invention relatesto teaching others through the use of digital interactive media.

2. Related Art

U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,826,878, and 6,032,957 to Kiyosaki et al., andincorporated herein by their reference, disclose respective methods andgames for teaching personal finance, investing and accounting(collectively and individually referred to herein as “financialprinciples”) to others. These games and methods have proven to besuccessful from both educational and commercial perspectives. Thesepatents disclose board games and associated methods in which playerslearn and reinforce financial principles through game play usinginanimate objects such as various game cards, boards, tokens and gamepieces.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,106,300, also to Kiyosaki et al. and incorporated hereinby its reference, discloses a mechanism for teaching financial skills toplayers, and in particular, to children, in the context of a game. Thispatent discloses not only the use of a board game but also an electronicimplementation of the game that can be actuated or visualized on adisplay.

Video games and other types of “interactive” electronic media havebecome a primary form of entertainment in the modern world. As usedthroughout this disclosure, “interactive” means an environment in whichaudio, video, activities and/or other actions are automaticallyperformed in response to a student, game player, or other type ofparticipant's input. The use of interactive media could be important invarious educational products or methods. Accordingly, it would bebeneficial to utilize interactive media to teach and/or educate others.

Additionally, there are significant costs associated with conventionalgames, methods and systems used for education. For example, thefinancial and environmental costs of producing, distributing and usingeducational and gaming materials such as, paper (e.g., trainingmaterials or playing cards), cardboard (e.g., book covers or game boardsand associated packaging), plastic (e.g., game pieces, spinners, dice)can be significant. Moreover, there can be significant costs associatedwith the design, manufacture, warehousing and shipping such materials.It would be beneficial to have educational products and methods that donot require as great an investment in, or consumption of, theseresources.

Moreover, conventional systems for educating others have beentraditionally associated with person-to-person contact and/or requiredone's presence in a particular physical location, e.g., instruction in aclassroom or playing a board game in a location where another person ispresent. It would be advantageous to provide methods and systems forproviding education in a digital medium so that students or participantscould learn and be educated at any location with only minimal investmentor infrastructure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention addresses one or more of the foregoing concerns byproviding interactive active electronic media, and tools therefor, thatfacilitate a user learning one or more financial lessons. In one exampleembodiment the lessons correspond to mathematics, accounting, personalfinances and business opportunities. As used herein, the term “lesson”means learning instruction related to a selected subject matter. A“curriculum” is a set of lessons directed toward a selected subjectmatter.

The invention includes a system for teaching financial skills toplayers, and children in particular, in the context of an interactiveelectronic game. Each player is initially provided a periodic earnedincome, periodic expenses and an amount of cash on hand. These items arerepresented by corresponding indicia on an electronic display. Oneobject of the game is for a player to generate passive income greaterthan the player's expenses by encountering game events which provide theplayer the opportunity to make financial choices to affect a desiredoutcome.

The game comprises a plurality of electronically displayed indiciaincluding indicia representing an animated player character, indiciarepresenting a financial statement associated with each player, indiciarepresenting a money changing selector, indicia representing a one ormore game events, and indicia representing a random event selectionmechanism. The game may further include electronically displayed indiciarepresenting game control features, which may include controls forselecting one or more of the following options relating to user help,printing, saving, parental information, and quitting the game.

The game events may relate to at least one of passive income, expenses,assets and liabilities of the players and preferably includeopportunities to generate passive income by purchasing income-producingassets. The financial statement may include modifiable indiciarepresenting units of passive income, units of periodic expenses, assetsand liabilities and units of earned income for the player associatedwith the financial statement.

The indicia representing a money changer/selector preferably includesindicia representing an amount of cash on hand and player modifiableindicia representing currency denominations for selecting to payexpenses and making change.

Also disclosed herein are interactive games using one or more animatedcharacters for teaching financial principles. In a preferred embodiment,select animated characters provide advice and/or commentary on financialprinciples including income types and debts, among others.

The interactive game according to the invention may, in order foryounger children to learn financial principles, not use financial termsbut instead use themes analogous to financial principles.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Additional aspects, features and advantages of the present inventionwill become apparent from the following description of the invention inreference to the appended drawings in which like reference numeralsdenote like elements and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for interactive educational gamesaccording to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a method for interactive education accordingto one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method for selecting a level of playaccording to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates indicia for selecting a level of play in accordancewith the method for selecting a level of play described in reference toFIG. 3;

FIGS. 5A-5B illustrate flow diagrams for an educational interactive gameaccording to a first embodiment;

FIGS. 6A-6F illustrate indicia and sequences of playing a game accordingto a first embodiment of the invention; and

FIGS. 7A-7J illustrate sequences, player actions and game indicia of aneducational interactive game according to various other embodiments ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A game in accordance with the present invention preferably teaches moneymanagement including how to develop passive income and/or investmenttechniques. Additionally, the game may teach students the nature ofsalary income (as used herein, salary income means revenue obtained fromworking), income assets (as used herein, this is defined as things thatgenerate revenue without requiring work), liabilities (as used herein,this is defined as things that require the player to expend revenue),how to earn more money through acquisition of income assets and basicaccounting and money exchange skills. In general, each player encountersgame events in turn. The player's cash on hand and/or financialstatement are adjusted based upon each game event. The game ispreferably structured so that the first player to achieve a passiveincome greater than his or her expenses (or liabilities) wins.

An interactive educational game according to the invention may teachbasics of money management and money exchange without requiring pencil,paper, tokens, boards, books, and paper money by employingelectronically displayed visual representations of units of respectivefinancial status factors including earned income, passive income,expenses, assets and liabilities. The electronically displayed visualrepresentations have distinguishing characteristics from one another,including for example, shape, size and/or color. Additionally, theeducational interactive game preferably includes visually coordinated(e.g., color/shape coded) event designators to facilitate association offinancial factors with game events.

Referring to the block diagram of FIG. 1, one preferred example of aneducational interactive game system 100 of the present inventionincludes screen 110, processor 115, one or more input devices 120, 125,media storage 130, 135 and optionally, audio output device 140 and/ornetwork 150.

Screen 110 serves the purpose of facilitating display of visual gameindicia to a game player. Screen 110 may be any type of device orcombination of devices suitable for serving this purpose including aCRT, LCD, LED display, projector screen and accompanying projector,plasma display and so on.

Processor 115 generates visual and/or audible game indicia based on themedia stored in media storage 130, 135 including processing informationto output to screen 110 for displaying the visual game indicia;processing user input from input device 120, 125, updating theinformation for output to screen 110 based on user input; and retrievingand/or reading information from media storage/reader 130, 135 forgenerating and processing visual, and optionally audible, gameinformation. Processor 115 may also control communications betweenvarious system components and optionally controls: (i) outputinformation to media storage 130, 135 to save game information ifdesired or a printer (not shown); and/or (ii) process information foroutputting audible game information to audio output device 140 (ifpresent). Processor 115 may be any single device or combination ofdevices capable of performing these functions including one or moremicroprocessors, micro-controllers, programmable logic arrays, andoptionally any respective processing peripheral components such as RAMS,ROMS, data buses, interfaces, power supplies, and/or cabling foraccomplishing the same.

Input device 120, 125 allows a player to provide interactive input inresponse to game indicia displayed on screen 110 and/or audible indiciaoutput from audio device 140. Input device 120, 125 may be any singledevice or combination of devices capable of performing this functionincluding one or more of the following: a keyboard, a mouse, amicrophone, a touch screen, interactive motion detector sensors (e.g.,virtual reality sensor components), a joystick, a gamepad and so on. Inone preferred embodiment, a mouse or joystick 120 is used in conjunctionwith a keyboard 125.

Media storage 130, 135 functions to provide information to processor 115for processing and outputting visual and/or audible information to theuser and to provide information regarding game sequencing and gamecontrol. Media storage 130, 135 may be any device or medium forperforming these functions (or combination thereof) including anelectronic media reading and/or writing device for retrieving andstoring game information, a media storage medium such as a magneticdisk, an optical disk or the like which may be read by an electronicmedia reading device, and/or any combination of the two. Media storage130, 135 may be connected to processor 115 directly, for example via abus, parallel port, or USB connection, or remotely, for example viaoptional network 150, such as a LAN or WAN. With remote connection vianetwork 150, media storage 130, 135 may further include its ownrespective processing device (not shown) to facilitate communicationswith processor 115, for example, a web server, database server, or othertype of network processing device.

Optional audio output device 140 functions as a transducer to convertelectrical audio information output by processor 115 based oninformation from media storage 130, 135, into physical sound waves tooutput audible game information to a player. Device 140 may be anysingle device or combination of devices to accommodate this functionincluding one or more personal computer speakers, auxiliary poweredspeakers, headphones, or mobile processing device speakers (e.g., cellphone, or PDA speaker).

System 100 may be an existing standalone processing device such as apersonal computer, laptop, palm computer, personal digital assistant,cell phone, hand-held game, electronic board game, or video game systemand accompanying screen that is suitable for running the interactivegaming software of the present invention. Alternatively, system 100 maybe a network-based system having distributed components interconnectedthrough network 150. In one embodiment of a distributed system 100,network 150 is the Internet.

Referring to FIG. 2, an overall method 200 for an educationalinteractive game may include, from a user perspective, selecting 210 alevel of game play; receiving 220 a tutorial about financial conceptsinvolved in the level of game play selected; optionally, selecting 230 aplayer/character for game play; optionally, inputting 240 a name for theplayer or player character; and playing 250 the educational interactivefinancial game until an objective is achieved 255 or the player quits260. Method 200 may further include a player retrieving 222, 226information from a previously saved game as opposed to creating andnaming a new character for game play.

Turning to FIGS. 3-4, a method 300 and corresponding electronicallydisplayed indicia 400 for selecting a level of game play (action 210;FIG. 2) according to one embodiment of the invention may include ananimated character 405 asking (action 310) the game player to choose alevel to play. Animated character 405 may present textual indicia 408and most preferably, accompanying audible instructions to the player toaccomplish this end. In one embodiment, an age level of the game playeris used for categorizing the levels of play available for a player toselect. However, any level-distinguishing criteria could also be usedsuch as grade levels, easy, medium and difficult skill levels and so on.

If a player desires to open a previously saved game, method 300 may notbe performed and indicia 400 may not be displayed to a user since theuser may have already selected a level of play and/or character prior tosaving the game.

Notwithstanding, if the player is selecting a level of play, inpreferred embodiments, the player will be presented with various skilllevel categorizing indicia 410, 415 and 420 to enable a player to selectone of several available levels of play, for example, by moving a cursor10 over the desired area and clicking with a mouse (e.g., 120; FIG. 1)or entering a corresponding digit or arrow selection using a keyboard(e.g., 125; FIG. 1) to select a level of play corresponding to indicia410, 415 and 420.

In one embodiment, the player is given three levels of educationalinteractive game play from which to choose, a first level (representedby indicia 410 as being suitable for ages five through seven), a secondlevel (represented by indicia 415 as being suitable for ages eightthrough ten) and a third level (represented by indicia 420 as beingsuitable for ages 11-14). The number of skill levels available for playas well as the age group or school level associated with each skilllevels is discretionary and may be adjusted as desired or as suitablyappropriate.

The player selects 320 the skill level desired to play. In the preferredembodiment, if the player selects indicia 410, representing the first orbeginning level of play (decision 322), the player is then presented 324with the beginning sequences and animations of that corresponding skilllevel (e.g., action 220, FIG. 2). In a preferred embodiment, thebeginning level of play is a game directed toward younger children thatmay not be familiar with general financial concepts. This game isreferred to herein as Carrots and Bunnies and is described in furtherdetail hereafter.

If the player selects indicia 415, representing the intermediate levelof play (decision 326), the player is then presented 328 with thebeginning sequences and animations of the game corresponding to anintermediate skill level. In the preferred embodiment, the intermediatelevel of play is referred to as CASHFLOW FOR KIDS for ages eight throughten.

However, if the player selects indicia 420, representing the highestlevel of play, the player is then presented 329 with the beginningsequences and animations of the game corresponding to that skill level.In the preferred embodiment, the highest level of play is referred to asCASHFLOW FOR KIDS for ages eleven through fourteen.

Each educational interactive game preferably begins with a tutorial 220(FIG. 2) that explains the displayed indicia (and their respectivepurposes), definitions, rules, and/or objectives of the game. Thistutorial may be provided using audio and/or visual information from oneor more animated characters and examples of sequences occurring duringactual game play. The tutorial facilitates a player's rapidunderstanding of rules, objects and indicia of actual game play.

Carrots and Bunnies

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6A-6F, a method of play 500 andcorresponding game indicia 600 for a beginner's level interactivefinancial education game will now be described. The beginner's level ispreferably configured to convey financial principles without the use ofmoney and finance lexicon or symbols, but rather financial principlesare conveyed using symbols and objects that are more familiar andlikeable to a younger age group. These familiar and likable objects andsymbols however are presented to a young player in a manner in which agame player may associate principles that are analogous to actualfinancial principles as will be better understood from the followingdescription of one example embodiment.

In this embodiment, an animated game narrator character named Toki has afarm for kids to take care of bunnies. The bunnies however, need carrotsto stay in a player's bunny pen. Toki provides the player a certainnumber of carrots each harvest day to take care of the bunnies. However,the player can use the carrots for buying things such as seeds to growtheir own carrots. The player may also invite more bunnies to come tothe pen. The player must have enough carrots to feed all the bunnies inthe bunny pen or the bunnies will leave. The object of this beginner'sinteractive financial education game is to grow enough carrots to keepthe bunnies in the bunny pen.

When a player's turn begins 502, the player initiates 504 a randommovement generator, for example by positioning cursor 10 over theassociated indicia and clicking with a mouse or pressing enter (see forexample FIG. 6A) or some other mechanism for conveying the players'sdesire to initiate action. The random movement generator identifies agame event to be encountered by the player character. In preferredembodiments, four game events are possible, a harvest 622 (FIG. 6B), aseed trade 623, a sunshine event 624 and/or a bunny visit 625.

In this embodiment, one game event is when Toki periodically gives theplayers a certain number of carrots each time a certain space is landedon or passed. Toki provides four carrots each time the player passes orlands on a blue harvest space (“harvest”). The harvest represents paydayand the carrots given by Toki represent a player's salary.

Another game event is an optional trade for carrot seeds. Each time theplayer lands on a carrot seed space, the player is offered theopportunity to trade carrots (from the player's carrots on hand) forcarrot seeds to plant in the player's garden. The cost of the carrotseeds may vary during game play and by the specific directions of thegame event encountered. Each seed packet will grow a carrot in theplayer's garden during each harvest.

Another game event is referred to as a “bunny visit.” Each time a playerlands on a bunny visit space, the player has the choice of inviting aspecified number of bunnies to stay or give the bunnies a specifiednumber of carrots to come back later. Every bunny in a player's gardeneats one carrot during every harvest. If there are not enough carrots onhand to feed every bunny in the pen, the bunnies without carrots willleave. Randomly, throughout the game, a skunk may enter the game andplay cannot continue until the skunk is dispensed with. The skunkrepresents unexpected expenses and can be lured off the player's screen,for example into a hole or through a gate, by dangling a carrot in frontof the skunk in the direction desired to lure the skunk.

Yet another game event is a sunshine event. Each time a player lands on,and in certain embodiments passes by, a sunshine space, the player isoffered a bonus. The bonus may include awarding a specified number ofcarrots to add to the player's existing carrots on hand or awarding oneor more carrot seed packets to the player for growing carrots in theplayer's garden. The bonus associated with a sunshine card may alsoinclude the opportunity to pay a specified amount of carrots to sendbunnies already in the player's bunny pen away.

In a preferred embodiment and from a player perspective, Carrots andBunnies includes a plurality of electronically displayed indicia 600(FIGS. 6A-6F) for representing: periodic income 602 (e.g., harvestcarrots); expenses 604 (e.g., bunnies that consume carrots); incomeassets 606 (e.g., carrot seeds planted in a garden); an amount existingliquid capital 608 (e.g., carrots on hand); random player movementgenerator 612, game event sequencer 620 and corresponding game eventidentifier cards (FIGS. 6C-6E). Optionally, Carrots and Bunnies furtherincludes one or more animated character images 610 representing a gamecharacter played by a player, corresponding character name 611 and gamemenu 650. Also, optional but preferable, are selectable add and removeplayer indicia 630, 631.

Indicia representing periodic income 602, expenses 604, income assets606 and liquid capital (referred to herein as “carrots on hand” or inlater embodiments, “cash on hand”) 608 serve the purpose of indicating aplayer's financial status, and changes thereto. Preferably indicia 602,604, 606 and 608 reflect respective age appropriate symbols that areanalogous to financial aspect associated with each symbol, for example,carrots in baskets, planted carrots and/or bunnies. These symbolspreferably are accompanied by a numeric value that corresponds to thestatus of the financial aspect, for example, the numeral eight adjacentthe bucket of carrots represents that the player has eight carrots onhand. In a preferred embodiment, a player may start a game with eightcarrots on hand 608, four salary harvest carrots 602, two bunnies 604,and no carrots planted in the garden 606, however, the starting valuesand symbols used are discretionary and may be changed as desired.

Indicia for random player movement generator 612 may be any suitableimage or images to reflect randomly distanced movements for a player'scharacter to navigate game event sequencer 620; examples of whichinclude numbered or color-coded spinners or die. Indicia for randomplayer movement generator 612 may be omitted and in its stead, theplayer character moves about game event sequencer 620 randomly, i.e.,without showing any movement generating indicia. Alternatively, gamesequencer 620 may rotate to identify random game events encountered by aplayer. In a modified embodiment, the player may be presented with aquestion about game play or financial principles, for which a correctanswer will allow the player to move a predetermined distance and/or awrong answer another predetermined distance.

Game event sequencer 620 functions to identify the random game eventsthat are encountered by a player based on the player character'smovement determined by random movement reflected by indicia 612. Forexample, if indicia 612 reflect a number, the player's character willencounter the game event (e.g., events 621-627) corresponding to thespace on which the character lands after moving that number of spaces.Alternatively, if indicia 612 are color-coded, the player's charactermay encounter the game event determined by the next space on game eventsequencer 620 that corresponds to the color reflected by indicia 612. Inone preferred embodiment, indicia 612 is a die animated to roll anddisplay a number when a player initiates the roll (e.g., by clicking onsuitable indicia with a mouse). The player may click on each dotrepresenting the number shown on the rolled die to move the player'scharacter by increments of one and audible and/or visual indicatorscount the player's movement. This embodiment may facilitate improvedcounting skills for young players.

Optional indicia for animated character image 610 and correspondingcharacter name 611 function to identify a particular player's turn aswell as potentially providing entertainment to the player. For example,character image 610 may be animated dancing, talking and moving aboutevent sequencer 620.

Indicia 650 for game menu functions are also optional and serve toprovide a player with game control options and additional features. Inpreferred embodiments, indicia 650 may include menu buttons 651, 652 and653 for respective, player help, saving and/or quitting game options.Additional menu buttons 654, 655 may be made available for parentalinformation (e.g., lesson content and/or updating) and/or coloring bookprintouts options, among others.

Selectable add player indicia 630 and subtract player indicia 631 areoptionally included amongst game indicia 600 to enable players to beginor leave during a game without affecting other players' games. In onepreferred embodiment, up to five players may be added by selecting addplayer indicia 630. Upon selection of add player indicia 630, each newplayer is able to select a predefined game character (e.g., one ofvariously colored boy or girl mice) and input a name for the character(e.g., 230, 240; FIG. 2). Normal game play (action 250; FIG. 2) resumesafter any new player has been added.

In a similar manner, when remove player indicia 631 are selected,indicia for identifying which player to remove (not shown) are presentedon the screen. In a preferred embodiment, cursor 10 changes from itsnormal shape (e.g., arrow) into a remove player/character pointerindicia which may then be moved over the player character that isdesired to be removed and selected, for example by clicking a mousebutton. Selectable confirm player removal indicia (not shown) may thenoptionally appear on the screen to confirm that the selectedplayer/character should be removed from game play. After confirmingremoval of the player/character, game play resumes.

If the player's character passes or lands 508 on a harvest space (e.g.,622; FIG. 6B), the player receives 512 an amount of carrots identifiedby indicia 602 into the player's carrots on hand 608. The player furtherreceives 516 a carrot for each seed planted in garden 606 and a carrotis subtracted 520 (from carrots on hand 608) for each bunny present inpen 604. If it is determined 524 that there are enough carrots are onhand to feed all the bunnies, play continues. However, if the playerdoes not have enough carrots on hand to feed all the bunnies, the gameis over and may be restarted 528 from the beginning. In an alternateembodiment, the number of bunnies without carrots will leave theplayer's bunny pen. In this alternate embodiment, the player mustaccumulate a certain amount of bunnies in the bunny pen (e.g., byencountering bunny visit game events) in order to be eligible to win.

If the player's character lands 532 on a bunny visit space (e.g., 621,625; FIG. 6B), the player is given the choice 536 whether to invite astated number of bunnies to the player's bunny pen or give the bunnies astated number of carrots (from carrots on hand 608) to go away and comeback later (see, e.g., FIG. 6C). If the player invites 536 the bunniesto visit his/her bunny pen, it is determined 540 whether the player hasenough carrots on hand to feed all the bunnies, including the newlyinvited bunnies. If not, the game ends and is restarted 528 as discussedabove. Alternatively, if the player does have enough carrots on hand,the bunnies are added to the pen 542 and the player's turn ends whileplay passes 544 to the next player if any. The determination of whetherthe player possesses enough carrots on hand to feed the bunnies may bemade after passing or landing on a harvest space. If however, the playerchooses not to invite the bunnies, the number of carrots specified isdeducted 548 from the player's carrots on hand and play passes to thenext player if any 544.

When the player's character lands 552 on a carrot seed space, the playeris offered the opportunity to trade a specified number of carrots for aspecified number of carrot seeds to plant in the player's garden (see,e.g., FIG. 6D). If the player decides to make the trade 556, thespecified number of carrot seeds are added 560 to the player's gardenand the number of carrots required for the trade are deducted from theplayer's carrots on hand (see FIG. 6E).

When the player's character lands 568 on a sunshine space (e.g., 624;FIG. 6B), the player is offered an added bonus such as those previouslyspecified. The bonus event is performed, for example adding carrots tocarrots on hand, and the player's turn ends followed by the nextplayer's turn 544, or if there are no other players, the currentplayer's next turn 502. In certain other embodiments, if a player passesthe sunshine space, the player is awarded the bonus and furtherencounters the game event of the space on which he/she landed.

Referring to FIGS. 5B and 6F, an optional random event that may beincluded in the interactive financial education games of the presentinvention includes the occurrence of unexpected expenses during gameplay. In a preferred embodiment of Carrots and Bunnies, unexpectedexpenses take the form a skunk attack (method 580, FIG. 5B; indicia 670;FIG. 6F). At random times during the course of method 500 (FIG. 5A) ofgame play, skunk attack indicia 670 may appear (action 582) on theplayer's screen. Skunk attack indicia 670 preferably includes indiciarepresenting an animated skunk 672, and indicia representing a skunkattack background portion 674 including indicia representing a skunkhole 676.

In a preferred embodiment, the player uses cursor 10 to selectably drag(action 584) a carrot (e.g., carrot 609; FIG. 6F) from the player'scarrots on hand to skunk attack indicia 670. Using cursor 10, the playerpositions (action 586) carrot 609 near skunk 672 in a direction theplayer desires to lure skunk 672 (e.g., towards skunk hole 676). Ifcarrot 609 is not placed close enough to skunk 672 it may be ignored.However, if carrot 609 is placed too close to skunk 672, the skunk willeat the carrot (decision 588). If the carrot is consumed, the playermust use another carrot from the available carrots on hand to repeat theprocesses until skunk 672 is lured into skunk hole 676 (decision 590).If the player runs out of carrots on hand (decision 592), the player isno longer able to lure skunk 672 into hole 676 and must quit the currentgame.

The games, methods and systems of this embodiment of the invention aredirected to familiarize young children, e.g., ages 5-8, with basicprinciples used in financial accounting and cash flow management.

Cashflow for Kids

The interactive educational game Cashflow for Kids for intermediate andupper skill level players conveys similar principles about financialeducation as Carrots and Bunnies, except that Cashflow for Kids ages8-10 and ages 11-14 utilizes actual financial terms instead of symbolicanalogies.

Turning to FIGS. 7A-7J, in a preferred embodiment, game 700 includeselectronically displayed indicia representing: a financial statement701; random movement selector 712; game event sequencer 720 andcorresponding event identifying spaces and optionally, animatedcharacter image 710; corresponding character/player name 711 and gamemenu controls 750.

Financial statement indicia 701 may include any mechanism for providingsuitable visual of an associated player's financial status. In apreferred embodiment, financial statement indicia 701 include acompilation of indicia representing, by way of example: periodic income702; expenses 704; passive income from investments 706; an amount liquidcapital 708 (i.e., cash on hand) and in the most preferred embodiments,indicia 709 representing current levels of assets and liabilities in therespective player's possession.

Indicia representing periodic income or salary 702, expenses 704,passive income 706 and cash on hand 608 serve the purpose of indicatinga player's financial status, and changes thereto during game play.Preferably indicia 702, 704, 706 and 708 depict a player's status inregard to the respective economic aspect using shape-coded and/orcolor-coded spaces and tokens as well as a numeric value associated witheach financial aspect. For example, earned income (e.g., salary) indicia702 may comprise tokens and spaces therefor in the form of bluetriangles, passive income indicia 706 in the form of green circles andcorresponding tokens, and expenses indicia 704 in the form of redsquares and corresponding tokens.

Indicia for random movement selector 712 may be any suitable image orimages to reflect randomly generated movement distances for a player'scharacter to navigate game event sequencer 720. Indicia 712 may besimilar to those previously discussed in respect to the Carrots andBunnies embodiments of the invention.

Game event sequencer 720 functions to identify random game eventsencountered by a player based on random movement selector indicia 712and may comprise any suitable indicia to serve this function. Forexample, if indicia 712 reflect a number, the player's character willencounter the game event corresponding to the space on sequencer 720that the player's character lands after moving from a beginning point,the number of spaces identified by indicia 712. Alternatively, ifindicia 712 are color-coded, the player's character may encounter thegame event determined by the next space on game event sequencer 720 thatcorresponds to the color reflected by indicia 712. Optional indicia foranimated character image 710 and corresponding character name 711function to identify a particular player's turn as well as potentiallyproviding entertainment to the player, e.g., character image 710 may beanimated during game play to dance, talk and move about event sequencer720.

Game event sequencer 720 may include a plurality of spaces, e.g., spaces721-724, corresponding to various game event categories. In a preferredembodiment, event categories include Investments, Expenses, Sunshineevents, and Paydays. In one preferred embodiment, sequencer 720 includestwo blue payday spaces 721, fourteen green Investment spaces 722, sixred Expenses spaces 723 and one yellow Sunshine card space 724, althoughthe number of each type of space and respective colors can vary.However, as specified above, each event category corresponds to itsrespective subject matter by color; e.g., green representing revenue ormoney opportunities, red representing debt, or yellow representsunshine.

Indicia 750 for game menu functions are optional (e.g., game menufunctions would not be present in traditional board gameimplementations) and serve to provide a player with game control optionsand additional features. In preferred embodiments, game control indicia750 may include menu buttons 751-753 for respectively, player help, andsaving/quitting games. Additional menu buttons 754, 755 may be madeavailable for parental information, e.g., lesson content, updating gameversions via a website, and/or various printing options, among others.

At the beginning of play, each player is provided with an amount of thefollowing: earned income 702 (e.g., $1000.00); expenses 704 (e.g.,$700.00); and cash on hand 708 (e.g., $3000.00), but any amounts may beused and different players could have different amounts.

A player's turn begins by initiating random movement selector 712, forexample, by moving cursor 10 over indicia 712 and clicking with a mouse(e.g., 120; FIG. 1) or pressing enter on a keyboard (e.g., 125; FIG. 1)or selecting indicia 712 with some other input device. The game respondsto the players input by generating a random movement identifier, usingbasic random generating algorithms, and displays the random movementidentifier as indicia 712, e.g., roll of eight on dice (FIG. 7B).

In one embodiment, the player's character 710 is animated to move to theposition on sequencer 720 that corresponds to the random movementindicia 712; for example, eight spaces from position A to position B. Atposition B, character 710 lands on a green Investment space 722 andencounters a game event specified on subsequently displayed Asset Cardindicia 731. In an example embodiment depicted in FIG. 7C, the gameevent specified by Asset Card indicia 731 offers the player anopportunity to buy an income asset, e.g., securities.

In preferred embodiments, Asset Card 731 includes a visual and/oraudible description of an arbitrary income asset, the price it will costthe player to purchase, and the amount of passive income that will bederived from purchase of the income asset.

The player may decide not to buy the available income asset by selectingthe appropriate indicia, e.g., selectable indicia 733 indicating “nothanks” or other similar indicia for the player to decline the offer.Alternatively, the player may decide to buy the offered securities byselecting offer acceptance indicia 732, which indicates the player'swillingness to buy the available income asset.

If the player selects offer acceptance indicia 732, the player pays forthe asset using available cash on hand 708. In a preferred embodimentuser selectable payment indicia 760 (FIG. 7D) appears on the player'sscreen to accomplish this end. User selectable payment indicia 760serves to allow the player to select various denominations of money forpaying owed amounts, e.g., newly encountered income assets and/orexpenses. Indicia 760 further serve the purpose of reinforcing and/oreducating the player about mathematics involved with various monetarydenominations including counting and making change.

User selectable payment indicia 760 may be any suitable image orcombination of images and corresponding user interface code to servethese purposes. In one embodiment, indicia 760 comprises a combinationof informational and user selectable indicia including balance sheetindicia 762, denomination indicia 764, remaining payment indicia 766,reset indicia 768 and cancel transaction indicia 769.

Balance sheet indicia 762 preferably reflects to the player, the amountof cash on hand available before the payment transaction, the amount ofcash currently selected for payment, and the amount of cash on handremaining after the cash selected for payment is deducted from startingvalue of cash on hand. Indicia 762 may be any visual image orcombination of images to serve these purposes including numericalexpressions and/or graph expressions.

Denomination indicia 764 are presented for a user to selectdenominations of available cash on hand for paying expenses.Denomination indicia 764 may be any suitable visual representation andcorresponding user interface code suitable for this purpose. In apreferred embodiment, denomination indicia 764 include representationsof a plurality of monetary denominations including tens, twenties,fifties, hundreds, five hundreds and thousand dollar bill denominations.Indicia 764 preferably comprise a plurality of bill faces, e.g., five,for each denomination. The bill faces are highlighted depending on thenumber and type of bill denominations available to the player. A usermay select a highlighted bill, e.g., using cursor 10, to add the amountof bill face value to the total of cash selected and subtract from theamount of cash on hand remaining (represented by indicia 762).

Once a highlighted bill is selected, that bill is de-highlighted. Whenonly one bill of a particular denomination remain highlighted, and ifthat bill is selected, user selectable payment indicia 760 will makechange from one or more higher denomination bills, if available, therebyde-highlighting the higher denomination bill(s) used to make change, andhighlighting at least one bill of the denomination desired. Userselectable payment indicia 760 is preferably configured to maintain atleast one highlighted bill for each denomination available based on theplayer's cash on hand. For example, if a player only has two hundreddollars cash on hand, the thousand denomination and five hundreddenomination would not have any highlighted bills while the one hundred,fifty, twenty and ten denominations would preferably each have at leastone highlighted bill.

In one version of the code supporting the functionality of userselectable payment indicia 760, a de-highlighted bill may be selected bythe user to remove that amount from the cash previously selected by theplayer (reflected by indicia 762). For example, if the player has apayment balance of $80 and selected a $100 denomination bill forpayment, the player would have a balance of plus $20. The player couldthen select a de-highlighted bill from the $20 denomination indiciawhich would then subtract a value of $20 from the cash selected(originally $100, now $80) and the selected de-highlighted twenty wouldbecome highlighted.

Remaining payment indicia 766 reflects the amount of money left to payfor the purchase. In preferred embodiments, a user is forced tomanipulate the denomination indicia 764 individually to select the exactvalue represented by remaining payment indicia 766. Once the item hasbeen paid for with the appropriated amount of money, a user selectable“OK” may appear in the remaining payment indicia 766. When the playerselects the “OK” represented by indicia 766, e.g. using cursor 10, userselectable payment indicia 760 are removed from the screen and the usercontinues with his/her turn.

Reset indicia 768 are provided for a player to selectably reset indicia760 to its original display of bill denomination indicia 764, remainingpayment indicia 766 and balance sheet indicia 762, i.e., before the userselected any denominations of cash to apply towards the purchase price.Indicia 768 may be any image or combination of images and correspondinguser interface code to accomplish this purpose.

Cancel transaction indicia 769 are provided for a user to selectablycancel the current payment transaction and return the player back to theprevious screen, e.g., view the game event card 731. Indicia 768 may beany suitable image or images and corresponding user interface codesuitable for this purpose.

The money-changing/selecting features of the present invention utilizemachine readable code executed by a computer processor (e.g., processor115; FIG. 1) to perform the foregoing functions. The program forsupporting the money-changing functionality may have a wide range ofpurposes outside that of educational interactive games, such as currencyexchange and/or other financial applications. Notwithstanding, for theeducational interactive games of the present invention, moneychanger/selector indicia and corresponding computer coded functionalityassists children in developing/reinforcing mathematics and accountingskills during game play.

Play continues after paying for the item and removal of the userselectable payment indicia 760 from the screen by updating game eventindicia 731 to reflect the purchased items (FIG. 7E). In preferredembodiments, the player drags passive income token indicia 734,representing the newly purchased passive income items, to appropriatespaces in passive income indicia 706 and the numerical amount of theplayer's passive income is updated accordingly. Additionally, the playerdrags a displayed asset indicia 735, representing the newly acquiredasset, to a corresponding portion of asset and liabilities indicia 709of balance sheet indicia 701. Once balance sheet indicia 701 are updatedto reflect the encountered game event, the player's turn ends and playpasses to the next player, if any.

In a similar fashion, when a player's character encounters a game space723 of the Expenses game event category (FIG. 7F), Expense Card indicia741 are displayed to the player. Expense Card indicia preferably includea textual description of the type of expense encountered, e.g., buy newwheels for your skateboard, and the option of: (i) paying for theexpense over the course of time; or (ii) paying for the expense out ofavailable cash on hand. The player may chose the manner of payingdesired by selecting either add to expense indicia 742 or pay nowindicia 743. Selectable payment indicia 742 and 743 may be presentedusing any visual representation and corresponding user interface codesuitable for these purposes. In preferred embodiments, add to expenseindicia include tokens corresponding to shapes of expenses indicia 704,in balance sheet indicia 701, e.g., red squares, as well as numericalidentifiers identifying the dollar amount for each expense token.

If the player decides to add the expense to periodic expense indicia704, the player selects add expense indicia 742, using for example,cursor 10, and then drags the corresponding tokens to provided spaces ofexpense indicia 704 and/or liability image (not shown) to the assets andliabilities section of. If however, the player selects “pay now” indicia743, user selectable payment indicia 760 (FIG. 7D) are displayed to theplayer for paying the encountered expenses from cash on hand (notshown). By way of example, in the depicted embodiment (FIGS. 7F-7G), theplayer chose to add the incurred expenses to his/her periodic expenseindicia 704 rather than pay it directly out of available cash on hand708.

In the preferred embodiments, the other two game event spaces, i.e.,Payday spaces 721 and Sunshine spaces 724, on game sequencer 720 areencountered by the player's character whenever they are landed on ORpassed. This is optional but preferred in embodiments when there arefewer Payday spaces 721 and Sunshine spaces 724 than Expense spaces 723and Investment spaces 722.

When a player passes or lands on blue Payday space 721, the playerreceives a net income into their cash on hand 708. The net incomereceived equals the sum of the players earned income (represented byindicia 702) and passive income if any, (represented by indicia 706)less the player's expenses (represented by indicia 704). The player'scash on hand (indicia 708) is updated to reflect the net income; that iscash on hand is incremented by the net income if the player's totalincome exceeds his/her expenses and/or decremented by a net loss if theplayer's expenses exceed the total income

When a player's character lands on or passes a Sunshine space 724, game700 displays Sunshine Card indicia 771 to the player (FIG. 7G). SunshineCard indicia 771 preferably includes a description of a random gameevent encountered by a player and one or more selector indicia 772 toenable the player to accept the random game event and continue on. Anyvisual image or combination of images as well as corresponding userinterface code may be used that are suitable for these purposes. Asshown in the depicted example of FIG. 7G, Sunshine Card indicia 771indicates that the player has received a two hundred dollar raise insalary. The player is then prompted to select indicia 772 and dragtokens presenting the added salary to corresponding spaces in periodicincome indicia 702.

Turning to FIGS. 7H-7I, another type of Sunshine Card indicia 775, byway of example, informs the player via textual and/or audible indiciathat the player will receive a cash reward for finding a lost wallet.The user is then prompted to select selector indicia 777, to find outhow much cash the player will receive into his/her cash on hand. Uponselection of indicia 777, random cash award indicia 780 is presented tothe user for randomly determining the amount for the reward (or othertype of random cash award) (FIG. 7I). The user then initiates the randomcash award indicia 780 to identify the amount of the cash award atrandom. Indicia 780 may be any image or combination of images,corresponding code for generating the images and functionality and, ifdesired accompanying audible sound to serve this purpose.

In a preferred embodiment random cash award indicia 780 comprisesspinner indicia 782 including an animated needle 783 for animating thespinning, spinner background indicia 784 illustrating various cash awardavailable to be awarded depending where needle 783 ends up, and aspinner initiation selector 786 for the player to initiate the movementof animated needle 783.

Sunshine events are unexpected events randomly selected by the game(based on random selection programming techniques). In preferredembodiments, Sunshine events are good things that may happen to a userthroughout the course of game play. However, Sunshine events could alsoinclude any random event that happens to a player during game play, oranother category of spaces for random bad events could be included ongame sequencer 720.

A player wins when he/she has enough passive income (indicia 706) to payfor all expenses (indicia 704). In preferred embodiments, the player isnotified that they have succeeded in obtaining financial freedom byhaving a greater passive income than their expensive but is allowed tocontinue playing if the player so desires.

Turning to FIG. 7J, in certain embodiments of the invention, indicia 790for representing an automated banker may be presented on the screen whenfinancial transactions occur, e.g., when a player passes a payday spaceand receives income and/or when a player pays for an asset or expense.In the preferred embodiments, banker indicia 790 includes a backgroundportion 791, one or more slots 792 corresponding to one or more bankingaspects, for example, expenses, salary, investments and/or expenses, andone or more money indicia 796 animated to move between backgroundportion 791 and the player's financial statement. In the most preferredembodiments, animated money indicia 796 is colored red going into thebank, for example for paying expenses and colored green when coming outof the bank and into the player's financial statement. When financialtransactions are complete, banker indicia 790 are removed from thescreen. This aspect of the invention demonstrates to the player wherethe player's money goes and where it comes from.

Differences between the Cashflow for Kids intermediate level of play(328; FIG. 3) and advanced level of play (329; FIG. 3) may includevarying the difficulty of the game. Such variances might include: (i)varying data for game events to be more suitable for an older age group;(ii) more sophisticated financial terms and game events; (iii)increasingly difficult starting values, such as lower salary and higherstarting expenses; (iv) increasingly difficult game event sequencinglayout, such as more expenses spaces than investment spaces and others;and (v) adding additional types of game event categories.

In optional embodiments of the games described herein, an animatedcharacter, e.g., Toki, appears after each player's turn and complementsthe player on what they are doing well and/or points out potentialproblems with the player's balance sheet or strategy. By way of example,an image of Toki appears after a player's turn accompanied by an audiblevoice and says, “congratulations, you are doing well, you are increasingyour passive income” or “be careful, you may not have enough carrots tolure the skunk away.”

In preferred embodiments of the invention, the methods/games describedherein are performed using a system described in reference to FIG. 1,wherein the media processed by processor 115 is a machine-readable codestored on media storage 130, 135. However, the present invention is notlimited only to computer-based implementations. In fact the methods andgames described herein may be implemented using traditional formats suchas board games, card games and the like where applicable.

The machine-readable code in exemplary embodiments of the invention isproduced on a CDROM, DVDROM or other memory medium using an interactivevideo presentation tool that enables the author to create userinteractive presentations based on a scripting language. In thepreferred embodiments, DIRECTOR version 8.5 available from MACROMEDIA,was used to create the code for the interactive educational games of thepresent invention.

Additionally, a lip sync tool was used for importing animated characterlip sync files into a lip sync library referenced by the presentationsprepared using DIRECTOR. DIRECTOR does not have any existing way to lipsync animated characters accurately. Consequently, the present inventorsused a third party video-audio synchronization tool for synchronizingcertain audio presentations of the educational interactive games withvideo animation. In particular, the mouth movements of the animatedcharacters were synchronized with character voice files using acommercially available program known as MAGPIE Pro version 1.25available from Third Wish Software and Animation. MAGPIE Pro outputs atext synchronization file that may be adapted to be referenced by apresentation created in DIRECTOR.

Unless contrary to physical possibility, the inventor envisions that (i)the methods and systems described herein may be performed in anysequence and/or combination; and (ii) the components or items ofrespective embodiments may be combined in any manner.

Although there have been described preferred embodiments of this novelinvention, many variations and modifications are possible and theembodiments described herein are not limited by the specific disclosureabove, but rather should be limited only by the scope of the appendedclaims and legal equivalents thereof.

1. A system comprising: (a) a processor; (b) a user interfacecomprising: (i) an input device; and (ii) a screen; and (c) a memory incommunication with the processor and storing instructions that, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the processor to: (i) display, on thescreen, a respective set of symbols for each of a plurality ofdenominations of money, wherein each symbol has an unselected appearanceand a selected appearance, and wherein each set includes a respectivequantity of symbols; (ii) receive indicia of selection of a symbol, theselection of the symbol provided by user through the input device; (iii)update the appearance of a symbol on the screen in response to thereceived indicia of selection; and (iv) revise the respective quantityof symbols in each set so that no first particular set of a relativelylower denomination has zero unselected symbols when a second particularset of a relatively higher denomination has more than zero unselectedsymbols.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory further storesinstructions to cause the processor to: (d) display a plurality ofnumeric values on the screen, the plurality of numeric valuescomprising: (i) a first total for all symbols selected; and (ii) adifference between a goal amount and the first total; and (e) update thedisplay of the plurality of numeric values in accordance with thereceived indicia of selection.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein thememory further stores instructions to cause the processor to present, onthe screen, additional unselected symbols corresponding to thedifference in the case that the difference is greater than zero.
 4. Thesystem of claim 2, wherein the plurality of numeric values furthercomprises a second total for all symbols presented.
 5. The system ofclaim 2, wherein the plurality of numeric values further comprises asecond total for all unselected symbols.